Knowledge led economies benefit greatly from positive externalities, both economically and socially. The achievement of knowledge driven growth is particularly challenging for emerging market economies. The project seeks to understand micro level incentives and macro level institutional mechanisms to encourage and facilitate knowledge creation and absorption, with particular focus on transition countries in South-East Asia. We seek to study the mechanisms, regulatory incentives and challenges in transferring knowledge into economic value. Moreover, we aim to identify and outline capable regulatory measures to address market frictions and inefficiencies on the path towards a knowledge economy. The project makes use of frontier empirical research methods, including advanced stochastic frontier analysis and dynamic panel data estimation techniques. The conceptual underpinnings of the project are at the intersection of industrial organisation theories, new institutional economics, development economics, and modern concepts in regulatory efficiency and justice. The project will develop lasting excellence oriented cooperation with South-East Asian universities, and contribute to R&D capacity building based on European academic values. Promoting of the project results through intersectoral knowledge transfer will be an important task. We aim to contribute to social innovation through policy suggestions, and to a paradigm shift regarding the role of institutions in transition processes. The project is a joint effort of Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia) and University of Lausanne (Switzerland) economics and law researchers with transition studies experience from Eastern Europe, and their fellow researchers from the National University of Laos (Laos), Ho Chi Minh City University of Law (Vietnam) and Royal University of Law and Economics (Cambodia) with thorough insight into the institutional context in their societies.